Back On Schedule... Almost

You have noticed that last week I was MIA... March has been just one big whirlwind in our family with two birthdays literally days apart, the release of my Lovbirds' Garden pattern, and Easter break sandwiched in between it all. Needless to say after all that I simply did not have the energy to write about it, but that's ok because all work and no play makes Jane a dull girl, right?

But now my focus has fully shifted towards the final push until Nadelwelt.... on my to-do list I "just" have to:

• finish quilting & bind Home Sweet Home applique sampler
• finish pattern/corrections for Home Sweet Home
• have my patterns printed out
• finish show presentations
• and too many other things that should be on my list, but I just don't know what they are yet

that's not so much... well, at least that what I keep telling myself.

Before any kind of show, I like to do a little mock set-up just to make sure that I've thought the layout through, and figure what needs to be tweaked. I've been busy finishing up a few felt applique samples for one of my classes.

I'm over the moon thrilled that Alison Glass made up two template pages that I will be sharing with my class participants... these are exclusives from her Applique book, and what I used for this first pillow.

Remember those washing symbols that I was working on a while back?... well, they were perfect little free-motion quilting practice and are all framed up. More on those later...

Keep your fingers crossed for me... so much to do, so little time. What's keeping you busy these days?

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Fly, Fly Away

I've always enjoyed mixing a variety of mediums... especially when one of them is fabric. I was recently inspired to re-visit a previous project of mine, and make another wool felt applique project. With using freezer paper as a template, it's an absolute dream - no marking, no slipping templates, just cut.

Since I've been working so much on pattern writing, I needed a project that I could simply retire to the couch with instead. I find that if I work too long at the computer, it's hard to then jump onto the sewing machine, so ... writing patterns by day, crafting by night is the plan.

What I love about working with felt is that you can layer the shapes with fabric. For me, this gives the project so much more depth, and I love adding all those pretty little unexpected details and accents with favorite fabrics.

It's interesting that when I work on a project, I usually have a very specific and very definite colorway that should be used. Somehow these days, a little touch of grey has been slipping into the mix, and I don't know how it happened? I love to work with a cool color palette, and grey (in a small accent form) is a nice contrast.

Any colors that "sneaked" their way into your projects that you weren't exactly expecting?

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